The First Virgin Battle
The First Server vs. Server Battle, also known as the First Virgin Battle, was a Hearts of Iron 4 multiplayer match that occured on the 29th of June 2018 between Beethoven's Group and Coca Cola death squad (BCC), and Paradox Forum Warriors (PFW). It is considered as one of the most grim and professional Hearts of Iron 4 match ever being played. Although the Hearts of Iron 4 one versus one tournament was the first competitive and formal proof, the First Virgin Battle is the mark of a serious conventional match and formal establishment of competitive Hearts of Iron 4 multiplayer matches. According to Ozurson, 7 group vs group matches have already been done prior to the PFW vs Beethoven and Coca Cola match. PFW played as the Axis while Beethoven and Coca Cola played as the Comintern and the Allies. TommyKayLIVE unexpectedly participated in this battle as New Zealand, allegedly begged for a spot for the "Virgin War" or the "Most TriHard game you'll ever watch". The video can be seen here. His bet was that the Axis had a good chance of winning against the Allies, but KLS proved him otherwise. Extensive planning and experimenting was done in preparation for the battle by both sides although there was no rewards for either party upon a victory. According to Ozurson, the only difficulty that arised in the test games were AI involvement, but even then Poland and the Balkans fell easily either way. A huge amount of dedication, effort and training was done for a perfect game plan which is of paramount importance to achieve a victory. The ruleset used for this match was the PFW's ruleset 06/22/2018 version, and the whole match can be seen on ThePrussianPrince's Twitch VOD here. July 22nd is the next match scheduled for if it is applicable for all players. Participants There were numerous notable, notorious, infamous and skillful players that participated in this match. Pentax participated as Nazi-Germany during this match. He is characterised by ideologies of elitism and perfectionism. A paper by USSRProgram titled "Paradox Forum Warriors and Their Tyranny Over the Hearts of Iron IV Multiplayer Community" (subject to change) is currently under work which is describing and developing multiple theses that is a result of their toxic environment and aura. KLS participated as the United Kingdom cooperative player. Many consider him as one of the best Hearts of Iron 4 players in the world. He has extensive game knowledge which he can utilise effectively while already having a good game plan with his country build. ThePrussianPrince participated as the France cooperative player. Although he is known mostly for his Total War competitive scene activity such as hosting, casting and winning tournaments, he has an adequately amount of knowledge in Hearts of Iron 4, and with the experience he gets from other strategy games will certainly help him in hoi4. Allies and Comintern Roster Players mich and TommyKayLIVE were not affiliated with any group while KLS and Cain were the only Coca Cola death squad members. Axis Roster The Hungary player was awarded the MvP as his micromanagement skills on the airforce of the Axis was extremely well. Everytime the Allies attempted an operation, he managed to counter it and respond instantly. Background The announcement of the battle was on X when Z did Y Before the match, Cain, a very respectable hoi4 player, gained a lot of friend requests which followed by messages of "Beat those fucking foreign faggots (Paradox Forum Warriors)!" Course of the War The gameplan for BCC group generalised was that all minor countries were to produce airplanes while all majors produced tanks. As soon as the game started, the Allies prooceded to start one division training to generate army experience for the massive army changes that is needed for each country's specific build +ALTHOUGH. From day one, France upgraded the airports in Bourgogne and Centre while producing military factories early effectively securing the "building in France" strategy. In April 1936, the Chinese United Front was created while already in March, the same year, the USSR had already War Economy. It must also be noted that the Allies heavily invested in the USSR already early on, so their economy was exponentially growing. on an astronomical rate. The Spanish Civil War also broke out in April 1936, and the Spanish player went for the river strategy. Remilitarisation of Rhineland and the Ethiopian-Italian War was already done in March 1936, making the prospect of The Shadow Scheme being possible, however, the Allies players assumed that the Axis would not give free General Rearmament. Italy was going for naval carriers which confuemperor is skillful with a naval Italy. By September 1936, the Axis was going down an unusual strategy. At this time, the Germans had chosen the Naval Effort focus which is unusual and not commonly if not at all taken. Italy had also gone for naval carriers which is commonly done in the Cornflakes meta. However, unfortunate for the Paradox Forum Warriors, the BCC had already speculated that this would happen! Everything was going as planned, and the build that was chosen due to their strategy would fall into great favour of the Allies. One of the BCC players said "I called it, somebody owes me $20." The Axis seemed rather confident, and was chosing the naval path, however, by focusing their economy on the navy, the army and air would suffer. BBC had already done a risk by all minors plans all majors tanks strategy, but now it was going into their favour. By October, all airports were done in France and military factory build-up ensued. UK integrated RAJ one level below -> to increase UK economy. ' you get factory by puppet. 75 % of their mills 25 % of their civs. China During the Chinese-Japanese war, Galip managed to kill enough Japanese. However, the Allies did not expect a rapid Chinese defeat. His frontline collapsed once a Japanese breakthrough was completed. Furthermore, China suffered supply issues and collapsing frontlines which were the main factors for Chinese defeat. Galip managed to repel Japanese coastal invasions and killed 40-width groups as well. Aftermath After the devestating defeat for Paradox Forum Warriors, they realised that their ruleset had to be changed. In the changelog after 22/06/2018, we can see their main changes: * Argentina, Mexico, and Philippines are no longer playable countries. * USA can no longer declare war on any South American countries. * Brazil can only land lease Allies once France falls. * Brazil can only declare war on Venezuela (nobody else can). Brazil is the only one that can be in Brazil-Venezuelan war, no land lease or volunteers are allowed to either side. * USSR now can only kill countries that it gets claims on from Molotov Pact. * USSR can now only justify once the Molotov Pact has been signed (If there is Afghanistan player, USSR can puppet it). * Can’t change Puppet Autonomy Levels (Exception: UK can annex Malaya only) Zareth, a member of the Beethoven group, had urged to change the ruleset or use another one since it was too Allies favoured. He stated that there were a few discrepancies in the rules. In the first example, we have the rule on USA which * Can join the war against Axis 6 months after the fall of France, a port has been secured by Axis in UK/Ireland, or October 1st, 1940. The thing about this ruleset is that lend lease isn't limited at all, so USA can lend lease the Allies meanwhile. In a sense, by putting all minors on planes which will basically add to the industry of France and free up on United Kingdom's industry so they can go on tanks. Furthermore, the Commonwealth nations cannot be in France, but the exception is that United Kingdom can * Commonwealth nations may not have divisions in mainland France UNITED KINGDOMThis part with []-brackets is not in the current ruleset, and unsure if it was at all. However, the strategy which will be mentioned was still used according to Zareth. prior to its fall (including using colonials/expeditions). With this rule, the Allies put the major nations to focus on tanks while minors on planes. This means that all the planes can be put over France with green air, effectively giving large amount of debuffs on Axis-alligned troops. As the United Kingdom could be in France, UK focused on tanks to defend France and later push it. Even South African Republic was focusing on planes although it is commonly building heavy tanks. The result of this can be seen in the ruleset, two South American countries was banned effectively reducing the Allied team as an attempt to balance. Zareth still disagrees with this measure as it isn't enough to balance the game out. He has played 7 prior group vs group games and has already a ruleset (although it is not alligned for Cornflakes update) which would be more balanced. Nevertheless, the game was played with the sit-and-go games rules instead of a proper group vs group games rules. Notes Sources https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om-KHrDkLFQ (retrieved 02.07.2018) Interview of Ozurson conducted by USSRProgram (retrieved 02.07.2018) Discord: Ozurson#8396 Cain before in a PFU match 04.07.2018